Method of finishing and preparing beverages.



. v i l J. I. WITTEMANN. METHOD OF FINISHING AND PREPARING BEVERAGES.

' APPLICATION FILED MAY 2, 1911.

' Patented June 18, 1912.

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J'AQOB FREDERIC WITTEMANN, 0F LAKEWOOD, JERSEY.

METHOD Oil? FINISHING AND PREPARING BEVERAGES.

Specification ofI-etters Patent. Patented June 18, 1 912.

Application filed May 2, 1911. Serial No. 624,549.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JACOB FQWHTEMANN, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Lakewood, in the county of Ocean and "State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Methods of Finishing and Preparing Beverages, of which the following is a specification.

The invention relates to a new and improved system or method of enhancing the value of fermented beverages such as beer, wine, cider, etc, by their treatment with the volatile products of the fermentation of such beverages.

The object. of my invention is to treat such beverages when they are matured, clarified or filtered, either or'all,, to the required standard, but lacking suflicient incorporation of carbonic acid gas and fermentation ethers, generated during the fermentation of such liquids to impart to them the desired degree of efiervescence, flavor and improved character by incorporating \with suchbeverages such volatile fennentation products .while .the latter remain substantially in the same condition, as when generated by the fermentation of such beverages, but at such density or'pressure and temperature that the stated object shall be attained, namely, that .the more or less quiescent state in which such beverages mature and clarify most readily, is transformed into a condition of effervescence or a foam-maintaining state ata temperature at which they attended by more or less disintegration, de-

terioration or other undesirable change in the character or composition of this complex gas, owing to improper treatment thereof, such as overheating during dry me chanical compression or compression in the presence of insuflicient cooling medium, or its contact with a more or less impure cooling medium or with disintegrating metal surfaces, or owing to its degeneration'or decomposition while kept in storage under high pressure. By my improved method all such undesirable changes or alterations in the composition, flavor and taste of the vola-'- t-ile products of fermentation are avoided when they .are incorporated in the desired proportion with a matured, but-as yet more or less unmerchantable, beverage, owing to its lack of a sutlicient proportion of such gas. The compression of the gas to the necessary density in which it capable of producing the desired effect in such beverages is preferably effected in part by its retention within the fermenting vessel, up to a pressure within a safety limit, dictated by the nature or construction 'of such vessel, and

with the beverage into which it is to be incorporated by a liquidand gas-forcing mechanism. such as a force pump.

As {this invention will find its principal use in the manufacture of beer, 1 shall hereafter'use the term beer W as ageneric. term for all similar bcverages and in the accompanying drawing show an embodiment of ,one apparatus for carrying outmy new and improved method or process'as-itwould be used in' a brewery; but I in no 'wise confine the use of my invention to beer only, as the process'can as readily be applied to the manufacture of other similar beverages and by the use of other constructions of apparatus according to varying conditions or requirements, yet carrying out. the same method in principle.

Referring now to the drawings, 1 represents a series of casks of any well-lunnvn or conventional construction, which are tilled to about.three-fourths of their height, more or less, with wort undergoing fermentation, said casks being kept open at the top so long as air or impure gas is expelled by the gas at first generated, but closed as soon as the air is expelled, so that this fermentation takes place under pressure which may be allowed to rise as high as the safety of the fermenting vessels may dictate, and is preferably maintained at a fairly uniform pressure throughout the course of the fermentation. Each fermenting cask 1 is connected by a suitable valved tubular connection 2 with a collecting tube or pipe'3 common to all the casks, so that the gas of fermentation from all the fermenting casks 1 passes through a branch tube 4 to a tube in part or wholly while in direct contact 1 5, from which connections 6 lead to a series generated is collected.

When the fermentation of the beer has of gas-collecting tanks 7 in which the gas:

vessels for urther elimination of sediment,

or it may be racked directly into shipping packages, when it has reached the proper vmaturity and clarification, being subjected to my new finishing process hereinafter (10-: scribed, in the course of such racking, into] mentation gasis comparatively warm, but

shipping packages. i Y

While transferring the maturedbeer from the fermenting casks 1 or from anyof the maturing or settling vessels 10 into another such vessel or to the racker 15, the beer may be filtered by any well-known filtering appliances, the construction or use of which formsno part of the present invention. The beer to be finished andracked off ready for the consumerjis drawn from one .or more of the fermenters 1f matured and-clarified therein or from the maturing or settling casks or vats 10 by a compressor pump 9 of any serviceable construction,through a tube connection 8 and outlet valve 18. The inlet maintained by the pump 9 through the tube neck 11 of the pump 9 is connected by asuitably v alved tube connection 12 with the gas-conducting tube 5 or 4 or both and by this pump 9 the "beer, together with. a pre determined proportion of fermentation gas is forced under the pressure created and 13 into and thgo'ugh the closed'conduit counter-current cooler 14: of any suitable construction and to and through a'counterpressure racker 15 of any suitable construc: tion, from which racker it isdrawn into kegs or other suitable shipping or distributing packages 16 or to and into reserve casks for finished beer against a counter pressure of a gaseous fluid in any wellknown manner. The quantity offermeutation gas under pressure admitted to the ump is regulated by a valve 17 in said tube 12 sothat the pump 9 constantly draws a predetermined quantity of beer,and at the.

same time a predetermined quantity'of gas and forces the mixture through the discharge or delivery pipe 13 to the cooler 14 and through the same against the counterpressure of racker 15 or withinfa reserve storagecask for finished beer, whereby the union .of liquid and gas, effected by their commingling within the pump, is made perfeet during their passage through the said operation, su

quantity of gas admitted to the pump are both regulable so that an attendant can adjust the valves to produce the desired condition of effervescenee .or foam-maintaining state at the average temperature at con-.

sumption of the beer. The pump 9 is preferably provided With a suitable pressure reclosed conduit, The quantity of beer and I lief device 19 of conventional construction,

so that a uniform pressure is maintained within the conduit from the pump to and through the cooler '14: and from the latter to and through the racket, so that uniformity of the operation and its effect are secured,

The gas ace imulating in the gas collectors ,7 or fermenting casks 1 is at a more or less high temperature, that is to say, the feras these gas-collectors and fermenting casks cellars the temperature of the gas in these collectors and fermenting casks is gradually ,reduced to that of the atmospherersurroun ing them, more or less. Usually the gas will remain warmer than the beer, the latter ordinarily being reduced to a temperature near the freezin point of water, so that the temperature ofhhemixture of beer and gas in "the pump 9 is raised more or, less above that of the beer before it entered the pump, but as this mixture of beer and gas is forced constantly under the pump pressure,through conduit 13' and cooler 14 its temperature is reduced to the original temperatureof .the beer in storage or still lower.'

Having described my invention, what '1 claimas new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is 4 The method of finishing and preparing beverages for the market, which consists in conducting into a liquid forcing mechanism, in the nature of a pump, in predetermined proportions; natural fermentation gas and a beverage, the temperature of the beverage being lower than that of the natural fermentation gas and forcing this mixture of natural'ferme-ntation gas and beverage under pressure throu h a device for cooling the mixture of sum natural fermentation gas and beverage, and conducting this mixture directly into storage or shipping packages while under the pressure exerted by the said liquid forcin mechanism in one continuous stantially as set forth.

Signed at New York in the county of New York and State of New York this 24th day of April A. D. 1911.

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Witnesses:

HERMANN Comumo, ANNA E. Summer. v 

